Increase the Valuability of Your Email List

In last week’s post we discussed five important email marketing automations that belong in your digital marketing campaigns, but in order to nurture those leads for your business, they first have to subscribe to your email list! Depending on your business, leads might opt-in by providing their contact information in exchange for lead magnets, giveaways entries, or newsletter updates. Now that you have a new person that’s taken an interest in your business, the first thing you want to do when they arrive on your email list? Make sure they belong there!

There’s nothing worse, in the email marketing world, than having a list full of subscribers who aren’t intrigued enough to open your emails and engage with you. This can tank your email deliverability and keep your email list stale. Aside from that, trying to convert those subscribers into paying customers will be nearly impossible.

Lucky for you, there is a way to vet your new email subscriber right out of the gate: the email double opt-in.

What is an Email Double Opt-In?

If you are a human on the internet [I have to assume you are if you are reading this blog post], you have most likely opted-in to any number of email lists seeking out coupon codes, brand updates, newsletters, or freebies. Even in social media, we are opting-in to people daily by following, liking, or subscribing. Email marketing gurus are taking that traditional opt-in one step farther with the double opt-in. 

Most likely, you’ve already encountered an email double opt-in. It’s a very simple concept with powerful capabilities. You subscribed to an email list, therefore completing your first opt-in, and then you’re given another step to complete, or a double opt-in. 

By completing this extra step you, the new lead, are telling the owner of that email list that you are an engaged subscriber. As we all know, engaged subscribers are very valuable to your future marketing efforts. 

Why Double Opt-In Emails Are Important

The value of an email list isn’t only dictated by the size of that email list. The engagement your subscribers have with your emails matter as well. For example, if we are speaking in averages, email marketing conversion rates are between 2-5%. We can assume that those 2-5% of people are coming from emails that are not only making it into the inbox section [not into promotions or spam], but that are actually opened by the subscriber.

With the average email open rate being 10-15%, even with a list of 8,000 that’s only about 1,000 people who are opening your emails and less than 250 people who ultimately purchase. Email open rates vary greatly between different providers but we at Social Fox are proud to say that we routinely see email marketing open rates of 40% and higher, therefore increasing the likely number of customer conversions. 

[GRAPHIC DEPICTING THE ABOVE CALCULATIONS, see example]

Now, email open rates are affected by many different factors, including optimizing the email copy, but the amount of engagement from your subscribers cannot be discounted. The beauty of the double opt-in, is that it engages the customer from the first step. Social Fox not only has the automation capability to set up double opt-ins but we also teach our users the best techniques for making sure that their emails get into the inbox and opened. 

In addition to the boosted engagement with your brand, by having your new lead complete a double opt-in email sequence, you’ve boosted your email deliverability with them. Your email service now knows that the recipient has an interest in your brand because they responded to the very first email you sent them. 

Even better is this has a trickle down effect on your overall email deliverability rate as well. The more people on your email list who are engaged with you, the higher the probability that you will make it directly to the top of those people’s inboxes, on the first try. 

The benefits of the double opt-in email go far beyond that initial boost of engagement, though. The double opt-in also ensures that the quality of your email list is top notch. 

Email double opt-ins also help to avoid accidental subscriptions completed by people who weren’t sure what they were agreeing to by providing their email address. In turn, this cuts down on immediate unsubscribes and complaints when they begin receiving emails from you. 

Can you tell we get excited about email marketing? The benefits of double opt-in emails are many and there are several ways to set these up to improve the quality of your email list. Let’s dive in.

How to Send a Double Opt-In Message

Double opt-in emails can be set up in different ways, depending on your business, but generally follow in one of these two paths:

Clickable Link In Email

Once a person signs up for your email list, a confirmation email will be sent to the email address provided. Generally, it’s a good idea with either double opt-in type to make sure that the new lead knows they will need to complete another action to confirm their email address. This can easily be done through a message on your thank you page. 

Once they get your email, they then click the link you’ve so kindly provided and voila! They have completed the double opt-in and confirmed their email address. 

They will now move on to whichever email sequence you have in place to nurture that new lead. Many of our Social Fox users utilize these clickable links to not only confirm their double opt-in but also as an option for their customers to opt-in to other offers presented throughout their email nurture sequence. This allows their clients to customize the email content they receive so that it’s the most beneficial for them.

Email Response

Another option for having your new lead confirm their email address through a double opt-in, is to have them reply to your email. 

You can have them reply with a specific word or reply with any text response in order to confirm their email address. This option is great for deliverability, but does have drawbacks, as people might be more willing to click a link that leads them to a thank you page, than to reply to an email. 

This could be a good tactic for a more personal opt-in like a health questionnaire, especially if you are wanting to open up a dialogue with your new lead. 

What If They Don’t Confirm?

We’ve covered the benefits of utilizing a double opt-in for your email marketing campaigns but despite you asking so nicely, not everyone will confirm their email address. This begs the question: what happens if they don’t confirm their email address?

People might forget to confirm their email address or the email might mistakenly land in their spam folder. For these reasons, it’s important to know that the double opt-in does have tradeoffs.  

While double opt-ins help to ensure the people on your email list are engaged and want to be there, your list also might grow a little more slowly.

There will be a portion of your leads that don’t confirm their email address, so if you’ve decided to utilize a double opt-in for your email marketing, those would be lost leads. 

As with many things in life, there are pros and cons to every choice. If you’re looking to build your list more quickly, you might want to use a single opt-in for now and add the double opt-in after you’ve established your email list. 

On the flipside, if you’re looking to build an engaged email list from the start then the double opt-in is perfect for you!

Conclusions and Takeaways 

Double opt-ins remain a great way to build a list of leads who are interested in and communicating with your brand. This helps to weed out people who have accidentally signed up or potential spam accounts. 

In addition to that, adding in a double opt-in for your email list means that you automatically get a boost in your email deliverability! People are, by default, engaging with your emails which means that your emails will end up landing right at the top of their inbox, exactly where all that hard word should be. 

Our Social Fox platform is optimized to make setting up these double opt-in automations streamlined so that you can be building your email list quickly and effectively. If you’re ready to easily qualify new leads on your email list, we’d love to help you get started! Sign up for a free call with us today!